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‘You were right—they’re nice people.’
Lucas nodded sagely but made no comment.
Kim stared at the cool hard profile for a moment longer, feeling there was something here she had missed, but at a loss to know exactly what.
It was the same when they got back to the offices. Lucas disappeared into his after some curt instructions regarding the notes she had taken during lunch, but he seemed distracted somehow—irritated, even.
Kim found she didn’t care. The roller-coaster of emotions she had been riding all day had taken its toll and she was physically and mentally exhausted, needing every scrap of concentration she had left to transcribe her notes into neatly printed pages. The excellent lunch didn’t help the feeling of tiredness either; for the first time since she didn’t know when she would have loved an afternoon nap, her stomach replete and her brain frazzled.
At half-past four she took a pile of paperwork into Lucas and placed it on his desk.
‘Thank you.’ He didn’t look up.
‘I’ll come back in ten minutes when you’ve had a chance to sign the letters; they’re on the top,’ Kim said evenly.
‘Fine.’ His voice was distracted and he still didn’t raise his head.
She was halfway to the door when she remembered she hadn’t mentioned a report the financial director’s secretary had just delivered and which she’d placed in the pile, and she turned swiftly, the words on her lips, only to have them freeze as she found him watching her.
Their eyes met and held for an eternity, glittering silver on dark brown, and then his gaze wandered to a tendril of hair which had escaped the neat braid at the back of her head. ‘Your colouring is very unusual,’ he said almost absently. ‘Blonde hair with such dark eyes.’
‘My hair is natural.’ It was a touch defensive.
‘I know; I can tell,’ he said softly.
Of course he would be able to tell, with all the blondes—natural and otherwise—he must have known in his time. The fact that her mind had registered the thought, rather than the thought itself, disturbed Kim, and to cover her confusion she found herself babbling, ‘Melody has the same blonde hair and dark eyes, actually.’
He nodded slowly. ‘Genetic. Perhaps one of your parents had the same colouring?’ His voice was very deep and very soft.
Kim wanted to gulp, her throat seemed to be closing up, but she breathed out through her nose and said calmly, ‘My mother. I don’t remember her but I have a photograph. My father was blonde too but he had blue eyes.’
‘Right.’
He hadn’t moved a muscle and there was no need to feel threatened but that was exactly what she did feel. Get a hold of yourself, she warned herself silently. This is a perfectly respectable conversation and you’re acting like an idiot.
‘I…I’ll come back in a few minutes for the letters, then.’
‘What?’ Her ruthlessly focused, c
oldly intelligent boss stared at her vacantly for a moment and then nodded abruptly. ‘Yes, do that, Kim.’
He lowered his head and she was off the hook, but it wasn’t until she was in her own office again that Kim realised she hadn’t told him about the financial report he had been waiting for. Well, she wasn’t going in there again—he’d find it, she told herself shakily.
It was another ten minutes before he buzzed her, and as she took the papers he held out to her her eyes sprang to meet his as Lucas said quietly, ‘Sit down a moment, Kim. There’s something I need to say to you.’
What now? She sat demurely on the edge of the chair in front of the desk, her knees tightly together and her expression reserved.
‘As my secretary you are privy to all sorts of confidential information that the rest of my employees are not.’
Lucas’s voice was even and steady and Kim wasn’t sure if he required an answer to what had seemed like a statement, but she said, ‘Yes, of course.’
‘You will find that people try to get to me through you for various reasons, some important and some not so important. There will also be instances when you will be approached on a personal level, but June found it was more circumspect to keep herself to herself at work and reserve her friendships for those individuals unconnected with Kane Electrical.’
What was he getting at? ‘But I thought her future husband was a supplier for Kane Electrical?’ Kim asked in surprise.
Granite eyes flickered briefly. ‘The exception that proved the rule,’ Lucas said crisply.
Right. Kim stared at him bewilderedly. Was that all?
